Designer Yves Béhar, and One Laptop Per Child launch the XO 3.0, helping underpriveleged children gain access to a modern education.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) provides affordable laptops to underpriveleged children from around the world, allowing them to use technology to gain access to a modern education. The non-profit program currently reaches more than 2.5 million students and teachers in 42 countries.

Marvell Semiconductor a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, and OLPC are dedicated to helping every child in the world gain access to education. Their most recent effort is the XO 3.0 – a low-cost, low-power, rugged tablet computer geared for classrooms in the fartherest outreaches of the globe.

The chief industrial designer for OLPC is Yves Béhar, the legendary founder of fuseproject whose bright green design of the XO-3 tablet has grip-friendly rubber case that folds back to reveal a scratch resistant, sunlight-readable screen. Power comes from the solar cell contained in the tablet cover, hand cranks or other alternative power sources. The XO 3.0 also has an Avastar Wi-Fi system-on-chip. 75,000 units already are on order, and will ship out in March 2012.

“Marvell is committed to improving education–and the human condition-around the world through innovative technology for Smartphones, tablets and a myriad of new cloud-delivered services. Partnering with One Laptop Per Child is one way we can deliver a revolution where it matters most-to benefit children in some of the poorest places on the planet,” said Tom Hayes, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Marvell, and a member of the OLPC advisory board. “Marvell has been with One Laptop per Child from the start, and we’re doing whatever it takes to help the organization realize its mission of providing meaningful educational opportunities to the 500 million school-aged children around the world.”

It is tablets like these that will be dropped by helicopter into remote villages as part of an research project by Professor Sugata Mitra into machine learning, that will test if people can teach themselves to write and use the internet without instruction. The project could revolutionize literacy programs around the world.

Great design and technology, matched with a social conscious. We can think of nothing better.